Originally published June 14, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
Along with Robin Williams, Tim Curry, David Bowie and Brad Dourif, notable character actor John Lithgow was in the running to play The Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, which of course went to Jack Nicholson.
Speaking to Vulture, Lithgow has admitted that he regrets passing on the role. “My worst audition was for Tim Burton for Batman, he said. “I have never told anyone this story, but I tried to persuade him I was not right for the part, and I succeeded. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. About a week later I heard they were going after Robin Williams and Jack Nicholson.”
At point of the movie’s development, Robin was going to feature with Eddie Murphy and Keifer Sutherland in contention. In interviews since the release, Sutherland has also admitted he regrets turning the movie down.
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Lithgow jokingly added, “I was doing M. Butterfly on Broadway and it was an exhausting show. It would have meant leaving that show and going right into a movie, and I said, ‘I just don’t think I can’. How about that for stupid? Actors are not necessarily smart people.”
Nicholson was Warner Bros.’ number one choice to play The Joker, going back to the movie’s early developments in 1980. However the actor turned the role down. In an effort to make him sign, Warner Bros. offered the role to Robin Williams, which he accepted. Upon hearing the news, Nicholson went back to sign on for Batman with a huge list of demands including box office participation and his own working hours. Williams was so upset that Warner Bros. double-crossed him, he turned down the role of The Riddler in Batman Forever, and wouldn’t accept another role from the studio until the apologised to him.
